Holocaust-Era Assets Main Page

Investigative Reporters,
the National Archives, and the Search for "Nazi Gold" and other Treasures,
by Greg Bradsher

Speech given at the annual meeting of the Investigative Reporters
and Editors Kansas City, Missouri, June 5, 1999

I would like to begin by thanking Roberta Baskin [CBS News producer] for asking me to
speak to you today. I have enjoyed working with Roberta and other investigative reporters
and look forward to talking about the National Archives, an agency who has as its mission,
as John M. Carlin, Archivist of the United States, likes to say, "providing ready
access to essential evidence." I know that investigative reporters certainly like the
sound of "ready access" and "essential evidence." I am sure that a lot
of entities with whom you deal are not too eager to provide either.

The National Archives, in its buildings in the Washington, DC area, regional branches,
and presidential libraries, has custody of the permanently valuable records of all three
branches of the Federal Government. These records reflect their organization, functions,
activities, operations, and programs. These records are preserved and made available
because in a democracy they document government responsibility and accountability to the
people. They provide citizens with a sense of national identity and are of great value to
them in establishing and protecting individual and property rights and privileges. These
records also provide the basis for understanding where we have been, they help orient us
to our present, and they provide guidance for our progress into the future. Within these
records are documentation on just about anything one can imagine.

These records are used daily by researchers for an infinite variety of purposes.
Sometimes it is for a very specific answer to a who question, such as who received
invention patent 800,000. Sometimes it is for a how question, such as how did Army doctors
treat shell-shock victims during World War I. Other times, the records are utilized for
why questions, such as why did the United States pull out of Vietnam when it did. Then
there are what questions, such as what was the Central Intelligence Agency's role in
the coup in Guatemala in 1954. There are also the when questions, such as when did Ford
Motor Company register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And finally, there are
the where questions, such as where were Japanese-Americans interned during World War II.

Often times with the archives examined, the researcher goes onto other avenues of
research, such as looking at public source material or doing Internet searches. But at
times the uncovering of certain facts within the archives leads to other facts, and pretty
soon an interesting story develops, often simply by chance. This is certainly the case
with something with which I and the National Archives have been involved the past three
years. Permit me a few minutes to tell you about the so-called search for "Nazi
Gold."

The term "Nazi Gold" is a term that has been used euphemistically beginning
in 1996 to describe perhaps the greatest robbery in history- that is the massive theft of
assets that occurred during the Holocaust. Efforts have been made by governments,
attorneys, commissions, and others, including investigative reporters, to take the
information in the records and use it by various means to bring some measure of justice to
Holocaust survivors and heirs of Nazi persecution; or, at Stuart E. Eizenstat, the Under
Secretary of State says, to turn history into justice.

For us at the National Archives the story began in March 1996, when United States
Senator Alfonse D'Amato sent a researcher to the National Archives to look for
information about Jewish dormant bank accounts in Swiss banks. This was an issue that the
Senator had been asked to look into by the World Jewish Congress. This organization
believed that there were billions of dollars in accounts that had been established by Jews
as a means of safekeeping their assets from the Nazis and that the Swiss banks were making
it difficult, if not impossible, for survivors of the Holocaust and heirs of victims of
Nazi persecution to retrieve.

The researcher very early in her work located records that contained detailed
information not only about Jewish deposits in a Swiss bank, but also documentation about
gold the Nazis stole from the Central Banks of Europe that ended up in Switzerland and
other neutral nations. Within a month of her discovery Senator D'Amato, the head of
the Senate Banking Committee, held hearings and shortly thereafter began a major,
worldwide research effort into Holocaust-Era asset, the so-called search for "Nazi
Gold.".

Before mentioning what happened, let's backtrack for a second. Why would the
Federal Government have collected information about Nazi assets. Most of us tend to think
of World War II as a time that intelligence activities centered around the movements of
enemy fleets, armies, and air forces. We tend to forget that just as much attention was
focused at the time on the movement of assets. After all, it was assets that allowed
belligerents to acquire the materials of war. For fifty years few researchers were
interested in that part of the story. But that changed in 1996.

In that year, besides Jewish bank account information, research was directed at the
monetary, or central bank, gold that the Nazis had looted and that had ended up in
Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, as well as in Germany. Then beginning in
the Spring of 1997, research spun off into looted art; unpaid insurance policies; and
non-monetary gold, that is, victims gold taken at the death camps. In the summer of 1997
researchers, especially journalists, began focusing on the roles of the Vatican and the
Croatian Utashi and their dealings with Jewish assets. Also that summer researchers began
seriously looking in the wartime trade of the neutral countries with the Axis to determine
whether such trade, especially after 1944, prolonged the war.

Researchers in the Spring of 1998, began systematically looking into slave and forced
labor, the wartime activities of American corporations and banks, and refugee policies of
various countries, particularly that of Switzerland.

The result of this research effort has been dramatic and significant. Reporter John
Marks in the December 14, 1998, issue of the U.S. News & World Report
wrote that "since 1996, when the Holocaust restitution effort gained new
momentum" archival institutions "have become drivers of world events. Their
contents have forced apologies from governments, opened long-dormant bank accounts,
unlocked the secrets of art museums, and compelled corporations to defend their
reputations." Actually it has done much more.

Time does not permit a full accounting of what has been done as a result of the records
and researchers who have used them. But let me just say that since August 1998, two Swiss
banks settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay $1.25 billion to claimants. Numerous European
insurance companies contributed $90 million for payments for claimants, and more millions
will be forthcoming. Over a dozen European countries contributed to a Nazi persecutee fund
some $60 million worth of gold that was owed them from the Tripartite Gold Commission, an
organization established in the wake of the war to restitute monetary gold. American art
museums have begun checking the provenance of their holdings and the American Art Museums
Directors Association adopted principles and guidelines relating to the restitution of art
work. And art work has been returned to heirs. Volkswagen has established a multimillion
dollar fund for compensation to former slave laborers. And currently the German Government
and German banks and businesses are negotiating with representatives of law firms, the
World Jewish Congress, and the U.S. Government to settle the slave labor lawsuits; this
amounting to upwards of $2 billion. And just last month Austrian banks offered to settle
out of court for $40 million.

Many investigative reporters have participated in the research efforts that have
facilitated the just- mentioned results. And like many researchers they are not often
ready to deal with archival research. These researchers are subject-oriented and
anticipate instantaneous access to documents related to their subject-interest.
Unfortunately, in the world of archives, things just do not work that way.

The two key thing for investigative reporters to know about using archives: first,
archives are different from libraries and second, we are many years away from being able
to find large quantities of individual documents on the Internet. Let me address the
second point first. At present for the National Archives it is cost-prohibitive to scan
over 5 billion pages of textual government archival records and put them up on the
Internet. Given our resources and current technologies, it is safe to say, that in our
lifetimes you will probably not be able to access all of our vast holdings by searching by
subject and having all relevant documents appear. The best we can hope for is getting our
finding aids and other search-tools online. I urge you to look at our website,
www.archives.gov, and once you have I believe you will find the National Archives is making
great strides in providing information and tools that will help you get started with your
archival research.

Once you begin your archival research you will have to do your own digging in the
records, looking for nuggets of evidence to piece your stories together. Our website and
staff can help pinpoint where you need to look, but it will be for you, in most instances,
to do your own research, your own digging into the records. And in doing your research, it
is quite important to remember the differences between libraries and archives.

Libraries arrange their books generally by subject. Thus if you want something on
gardening, the books will probably be physically together on the shelves. Like wise,
library card indexes can also be searched by subject. This is not always the case with
archives. Archives are arranged by provenance, i.e., which entity created or received
them, and then each series of records of an agency are arranged in some particular order.
Sometimes this order is alphabetically by subject, sometimes it is by some type of
alphabetical or numerical or an alpha-numeric filing scheme, and at other times it is
numerically by some form of case file number, which you would need an index to look up
specific case files.

Thus, before jumping into archival research, you need to have some general idea of what
agency, or agencies, was responsible for the activity and/or subject in which you are
interested. Sometimes this is pretty self-evident, for example mine accident records can
be found within the records of the Bureau of Mines. Other times it is not so
self-evidence, such as what Federal agency is responsible for the United States
participation in World Fairs and Expositions. We archivists are trained to help you with
answering these questions, for helping you convert a subject interest into a specific
agency or agencies' records. But you need to come with as much background information
as possible and with your subject clearly, and narrowly focused.

Again, before starting your research at the National Archives, I would urge you to look
at our agency's website. Not only does it provide information about our research
facilities and our holdings, but it also provides information on doing research. Archival
research can be daunting, but being informed and prepared, well most certainly facilitate
your research effort.

Once you begin looking at records, they often give clues where else to look. It is like
throwing a pebble into a pond and watching the water ripple outwards in all directions.
This is not only true in terms of agencies involved, but related subjects. This has truly
been the case with the search for Holocaust-Era Assets which I previously discussed, but
it is true with so many other subjects.

To fully utilize archives a researcher needs certain skills, ones that most
investigative reporters have, at least I would surmise. You need to have a sense of
curiosity, the persistence of effort, self-reliance, and often endless patience. Given
these traits, an interesting subject, and our assistance, you should be able to
successfully navigate through the millions of boxes of documents and our non-textual
records and find what you are looking for, and perhaps even more than you expected to
find.

Our mission at the National Archives is to help you and to make the records available.
All you need do is ask. Roberta Baskin did and she utilized our holdings to produce a very
powerful and moving five-part program for CBS News, a program that we at the National
Archives are proud to have had a small role in creating. I will now let Roberta talk about
her program and her research at the National Archives. But before turning the floor over
to Roberta I want to thank you for your kind reception here today and that I and the staff
of the National Archives look forward to assisting you in the important work you do as
investigative reporters.